Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | September 4th, 2020 | 13:30

Leaving the dock, we were lucky enough to receive some whale rumors far south in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Attempting to give our passengers the best possibility of seeing whales, we decided to follow this rumor and head straight south. Coming up on the eastern side of Hein Bank, we spotted SIX black dorsal fins! These whales were initially by Smith Island and traveled west our entire trek south through the calm waters.

This...

(May 7, 2017)  After a couple of weeks of hanging lefts out of Friday Harbor and heading for Canadian waters to watch transient orca, humpback, grey, and minke whales, it felt strange to bear right and run south in San Juan Channel.  Such a move often signals that our resident killer whale pods have returned to hunt salmon on the west side of the archipelago, and today was no exception.

Before we reached our destination, we stumbled upon a small pod of Dall’s porpoise.  Our...

Yesterday the M/V Sea Lion headed out on the water for a private charter. I love being a part of hosting these private events, as we can totally taylor the trip for whatever the groups are most interested in. Yesterday our group wanted to find as much wildlife as we possibly could, and wildlife we found! We left Friday Harbor and motored north. At Spieden Island we encountered a lively group of Steller's sea lions, and a number of bald eagles. As we headed further north up and around...

Today was one of those days that comes maybe but once a summer here in the Salish Sea, and Captain Mike, myself and some lucky passengers were fortunate enough to see some incredible examples of our local wildlife.

We left the dock at exactly noon (despite a slightly tardy naturalist) on the trusty Sea Lion and headed South out of Frdiay Harbor through the San Juan Channel. As soon as we left the harbor, the show began with sightings of some harbor seals and about six playful harbor...

We found transients again today! They were nearly in the same area as they were 2 days ago, but this time it was a different group. We encountered them off Portland Island, just outside of Sydney, British Columbia. When we left them near Coal Island (48°41.83N, 123°22.19W), they were still traveling south. At first the animals were breaching and churning the surface of the water. At one point we saw the underside of a “sprouter” (pubescent) male as he rolled around on the surface...

The Puget Sound is a very biologically diverse inland sea. We have many species of marine mammals, birds, invertebrates, algae and more.

The most popular marine mammal is the orca, which is actually the largest member of the dolphin family. Today's safari included lots of bald eagles, porpoises, seals and bull kelp (brown algae).

Bull kelp is very interesting and important to our ecosystem. It is a primary producer, using the sunlight to grow and ends up feeding many organisms....